MEETING 2023

Listening Sessions were held with SPH stakeholders (faculty, staff, students and alumni) to elicit feedback to inform our school’s vision and strategic plan of action.

In October, an Academic Equity Fellowship (AEF) program was launched to invest in the mentorship of underrepresented doctoral students and master’s level students aspiring to enter doctoral training and is designed to enhance the pathways of the next generation of diverse scholars. The AEF program introduces graduate students to skills that promote academic equity and provides resources to succeed in their training and careers in public health.

Each of the 18 recipients of the AEF receives a stipend for attending a total of six, 75-minute interactive sessions held monthly during the 20222023 academic year. We also implemented ongoing cultural humility/anti-bias and inclusion trainings for UofM SPH faculty and staff with sponsorship by a school-wide faculty committee.

In January 2023, focus groups were planned with underrepresented faculty from various colleges across campus to obtain perspectives about barriers related to academic success for historically excluded scholars and those from marginalized social identity groups.

Using feedback from these assessments, interviews, and workshops, as well as mentorship from experienced EDI leaders, the UofM SPH strives to imbed principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion into the SPH vision/mission and develop a strategic plan that encompasses EDI priorities, recommendations and an action plan.

REAIM Public Health IDEAS through the Lens of the Youth: A Model for Public Health Education in High Schools

Current models of public health education in high schools have focused primarily on core public health content in the existing curriculum. It is argued that they have not emphasized critical thinking, engagement, innovation and empowerment. To address this limitation, University of Memphis School of Public Health launched a new initiative, “REAIM Public Health IDEAS through the lens of the Youth,” to introduce public health education in the high schools. This framework relies on the elements of

(continued from page 23)

Research, Entrepreneurship, Analytics, Informatics and Management (REAIM) along the commitment to Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Sustainability (IDEAS) to transform ideas into viable solutions for pressing public health challenges of the 21st century.

Through this initiative, youth will actively participate and learn how to acquire, analyze, interpret, apply and evaluate information to comprehend and address health problems in their own communities and globally. It will also cultivate a sense of social responsibility and youth empowerment to engage with community health needs. Public health education in high schools can also help these institutions in getting recognized as flagship schools in public health education; being a well-being hub for developing service orientation for youth and a catalyst for preparing them for public health and other health-related higher education and future workforce.

This initiative aims to adopt a multipronged approach to expand public health education pipeline through

1) launching REAIM Public Health IDEAS Through the lens of the Youth,

2) encouraging dual enrollment for high school students and 3) establishing REAIM Public Health IDEAS club in the high schools. The “REAIM Public Health IDEAS through the lens of the Youth,” is an innovative initiative aimed to instill Leadership and Educational Advancement among youth to solve Public Health Challenges of the Youth (LEAP). These efforts will assist youth in developing innovative and out-of-box solutions to address public health challenges of our times. This initiative will also bring together youths’ ideas on how these public health problems can be addressed in diverse local and global settings. Under the public health dual enrollment, we will offer 15 credit hours of undergraduate course work in the junior and senior year of the high school to introduce them to foundational and applied multidisciplinary core content in public health.

In addition, we will establish REAIM Public Health IDEAS Club in each of the participating high schools to continue to provide students with opportunities to engage in research and mentorship for future public health and health-related careers.

This initiative will result in public health partnerships, prepare young people for the public health pipeline, and ultimately reduce health inequities in our vulnerable communities.

The goal of this endeavor is to sensitize youth about critical public health problems and ways in which they can collectively and collaboratively device innovative solutions.

The findings from this initiative will inform and help us evaluate and further improve our dual enrollment curriculum for high schools.